Wales used to relish going to Twickenham. They lost at HQ only once from the start of the 1960s to the end of the 1970s and then they claimed they were done by the referee. Recent visits have not been so profitable; where they once danced they have come to tiptoe. But there is again a firmness in the step of the men in red, a quiet, rippling confidence that took them to within a breath of wind of the World Cup final in October.

Wales teams in the 1990s and 2000s spoke deferentially about Twickenham and England, more than content to play the role of underdogs, if barely raising a yap, but this year's model is markedly different, viewing Saturday not as a visit to an arena where Wales have won only once since 1988 but as another step on the way to success.

"At the end of the day we want to be the best," says Leigh Halfpenny, the full-back who is the only member of the Wales back division who stands at less than 6ft. "The objective this tournament is to win every single game and achieve the grand slam, nothing less. We set high goals to bring out the best in ourselves: things have gone well so far with two victories but this is a long campaign and we have three massive games to go. Everyone is ambitious, from the coaches to the players. Winning trophies is our goal and we believe we can achieve that."

England are used to Welsh chutzpah in Cardiff but not since the glory years of the 1970s have they confronted their foes from across the Severn so resolutely confident before a match at Twickenham. The legacy of Welsh rugby's golden era was an arrogance that too often turned into disdain but, as Shane Williams put it recently, the current Wales squad is armed with a good arrogance, recognising their strengths but not rubbishing opponents.

"England have had two good wins away from home where they had to dig deep and we know it will be hard," Halfpenny says. "You do not get a result at a place like Twickenham if you do not have belief. When I was growing up, I watched Wales lose there regularly, sometimes heavily. We have started well but there is more to come from us. There are areas we can improve on and we have been working on them."

Little more than a year ago Wales started their Six Nations campaign with a first home defeat by England in the tournament for eight years. Warren Gatland would not have made the shortlist for any popularity awards and the Welsh Rugby Union's decision to award the coach a new four-year contract a couple of months before was derided.

Now Wales are playing with polish, power, panache and physicality, a legacy of three gruelling training camps in Poland, two before the World Cup and one last month. Wales emerged from them not just supremely conditioned and fit but with a collective mental hardness developed after they were pushed to the outer edge of their endurance.

"There were times in Poland when you were at your lowest physically and mentally," Halfpenny says. "It was so cold there last month that when we trained on the beach, it was covered in snow. Your mind becomes drained and you need the support of your team-mates to pull you through and make sure you all get to the finishing line together.

"There were no home comforts during our time in Poland: the rooms were basic, no nice beds, and the food was not to our taste, egg with everything. No one there spoke our language. It was a harsh environment, like a military camp: you were pushed to breaking point. There were times when you felt like giving up but you knew you had to pull through and, from somewhere, you found an extra bit.

"That training told in the final five minutes of our opening game in Dublin. We were trailing by six points and were feeling the effects of 75 hard minutes. You had to look deep inside yourself to be able to get the result and we knew, because of what we had been through together, that we had the character to do it. It showed where we are at the moment."

Halfpenny kicked the penalty that beat Ireland with less than a minute to go. Eleven weeks previously he had lined up a late, long-range penalty in the World Cup semi-final against France that could have given his side a two-point lead. It looked as if it had the distance but at the last moment it faded and dropped under the bar. The 23-year-old took a long time to get over the miss.

"That defeat gave everyone the drive to do better and it made us stronger," he says. "I said that day that, if I had an opportunity to take a winning kick again, I would nail it. I was not expecting the opportunity to come so quickly and as soon as I saw Wayne Barnes's arm go up, my heart started racing. You could not help but feel the pressure.

"I took a couple of deep breaths to compose myself and in my mind took myself back to Gorseinon where I have practised since I was a boy and where there is no crowd around me, just a ball and a set of posts. A fan told me after the game that he could not believe the Irish crowd had booed as I took the kick. I had not realised, having blocked everything out. It was just a great feeling when the ball went over and I want to carry that on."